It says a lot about SXSW's size and scope that this "sampler" of the
annual music festival spans six and a half hours, but here we are: 100
songs by 100 artists worth discovering at this year's big event.

Handpicked
from among thousands of artists, this genre-traversing playlist picks
highlights, discoveries and future thrills from this year's festival —
and, for the next 30 days, it's available for free download in its
entirety, as one 813 MB zip file, right here. Of course, for those
without that much hard-drive space, you can download each song
individually, as well as stream The Austin 100 on this page and through
NPR Music's various mobile devices.

Come back to NPR.org/SXSW
for live showcases, photos, videos and podcasts from this year's
festival. On March 13, starting at 8:45 p.m. ET, we'll present a live broadcast from Stubb's in Austin, featuring Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Cafe Tacvba, Alt-J, Youth Lagoon, Waxahatchee and Le1f. Information on how to enter for tickets is at SXSW.com. On March 14, NPR's Alt.Latino presents a free SXSW showcase at Auditorium Shores with Cafe Tacvba, Molotov and Bajofondo. Doors are at 5 p.m. ET. We'll be recording the show, so check for highlights later.

We still have more SXSW coverage to announce. Follow @nprmusic for details and updates.